Fine, I'll leave this for another time. For this same project I need to set up to share media on a Mac mini I'm configuring as a media center. I launch Boxee and--damn again--it won't launch fully because it needs to connect to the mothership via the Internet.

Okay. Maybe there's some information on the outage so I'll have a clue when I can get back to work. I'll just tune into one of the Bay Area news stations via my (because AM radio reception in my valley is miserable) and... right, no streaming audio from the Internet.

And then the dull light finally came on. Increasingly we depend on the Internet for information, entertainment, and conducting business. Much as we tout the benefits of the cloud, when that cloud dissipates, you've got nothing but blue skies and a slashed connection to the rest of the world.

While I appreciate this event providing me with an excuse to walk away from technology and enjoy a pleasant chat with a neighbor about poison-oak control and Buster Keaton, I hope something a little more positive comes from it. The notion, for example, that maybe having this kind of dependance with no backup when some lunatic decides to take a pair of bolt cutters to our information lifeline isn't such a hot idea.